I think that no neutral ice rule is in place because back in the '50 the Rangers had to basically play their home stanley cup playoff games in Toronto because of the circus.

best case scenario to solve league's problems: fire bettman.

better case scenario:
fire sale of the south to canada and worthwhile northern U.S. cities
give us back quebec, winnipeg, hartford
tampa, atlanta, phoenix, florida = embarassing

Question I have is this...Could the NHL survive without the six Canadian franchises, who would also be entitled to All players from Canada starting with the breakup...And could the NHL continue without those six teams and future Canadian players.

Maybe the problem isn't the rules, but the people trying to enforce the rules.

Indemnification fees are usually paid to teams when their territorial rights are infringed .... the Islanders and Devils both pay the Rangers (or at least did pay) to have their locations. The Leafs would be eligible for those type of payments in the case of another team going to their area. Why is this not brought up?

I like what fetus enchiladas is proposing (post #4). Growing up in Buffalo in the 1980's, the old Adams Division was sweet with the Sabres, Habs, Bruins, Nordiques and Whalers. I miss Winnipeg too. Oh, and please get rid of franchises in Nashville and Dallas.....having teams there while not having one in a place like Saskatoon is just silly. I may be biased against the Stars though...NO GOAL, BRETT HULL!!! LOL.

I don't see why the Make It Seven crowd wouldn't be pleased. Unless, you know, Bettman can be taken at his word.
I can totally see the Argos' owners wanting to start losing $40M per season, rather than using that kinda coin to sign Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson.
Why Wysh has so much faith in what Bettman says continues to puzzle me. What puzzles me more, however, is that Greg seemingly has no hang-ups about where Reinsdorf would move the team. Almost as though Wysh would be fine with KC or Vegas.

Bettman's Hockey World only focuses on the "Potential' fans...Disregarding and Disrespecting those that remained Loyal. "Bring home the gal you brought to the dance' Gary...Or in your case.."Whomever"!!

Alright... if we are going to take teams away from places where it doesn't get cold... that would include, San Jose, LA, Phoenix, Dallas, Florida, Tampa, Nashville, Atlanta, and Carolina... did I leave any out? Not getting cold has nothing to do with creating ice indoors. And don't tell me that weather has anything to do with drawing fans. Your beloved teams that relocated like Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg... all moved for a reason. They couldn't draw enough to make it work. What has changed so drastically that now you could support a franchise? If the league wants to draw more fans, make it more affordable for families to go to games, put the game back on a network that people can find, and teams need to make a better effort to putting a winning product on the ice. In Phoenix, if they want to draw more fans, hire a coach with a proven system that works and finally put the "Gretzky Experiment" to rest. Great player... terrible coach, terrible system. If you look back to the early years of the Phoenix Coyotes... they had decent players and decent coaches, made the playoffs and you couldn't hardly get a ticket to the games for the White Out. Enough complaining about losing your Canadian teams... if you could support them, they'd still be there.

NBC Fellas "Nothing But Cash"!! No freebies here, So put your Sony Screen away Pittsburgh..Hockey, Power, Respect..

@11 No No No No No...Sentence five...Quebec and Winnipeg were constant sell outs..Please fans, really make sure of your information before you post here, I may get a name or year wrong, but Not a Concept!! Those teams in Canada didnt have the "Bettman Potential" and were considered by him as "Smaller Markets" However, the fans were always there. Notice how Hartford left too!! Bettman.

@11 Maybe We Should tale our six teams, add some Europeans cities to the mix, along with more Canadian teams, and form our Own League. Make sure all players born in Canada have to play in our cities. Lets see your league with a bunch of College players. Dont ever insult the people where the games heritage origionated...Trust me..You need us alot more in hockey than we need you. Hockey always sells in Canada and is a religion...Not a Hobby or Novelty..

@11 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes....Sentences four and five....
"Your beloved team [like Phoenix might] move for a reason. They couldn't draw enough to make it work."
....No no no no no....Penultimate sentence...
"....[Phoenix] made the playoffs ... and you could hardly get a ticket to the games for the White Out."
a) They still couldn't sell enough regular season tickets at America West to make a profit
b) Hardly being able to get a playoff ticket is a far cry from selling out every playoff game
c) If the league wanted to draw more fans or make it affordable for families, they would move the team to Toronto, into a 30,000 seat arena and have the potential for more than a million fans per season attending games that are more affordable than Leafs games
If Phoenix could support them (after getting taxpayers to shell out $180M for a new arena), they'd still be there in 2010, the year KC makes contact.

@11
How's your Realty business doing down there?
One would think you'd have grown more adept at pawning off fixer-uppers by now, yet your entire sales pitch here falls flatter than the Glendale housing market. Stop trying to sell us oceanfront property from Arizona, would ya?

@TLeeRealtard: The Canadian teams basically support the U.S. American ones through the NHL's welfare program. There was never a problem with attendance in Winnipeg or Quebec City. Two carpet-bagging owners sold the teams for 30 sheckels. The Coyotes are a failure. Give it another season of losing hockey and decllining attendance and the Avs will be a failure, too.
Hockey would be better of without Americans on almost every conceivable level, from the New York lawyer in the commissioner's chair, to the blood-thirsty idiots who prefer fighting to scoring, to the drunk morons who bang on the glass in Pittsburgh every time the puck goes into their corner, to the casual fans who whine they can't follow the puck.
There's a bouncing orange ball. Go fetch.

the doomsday scenario has been in play since bettman has taken charge. why post something that is already occuring?

So if a major storm system hit the Midwest and the East and blew off both teams roofs they would just end it since If home arena is unavailable for a playoff game . I know it odd are not good for it to happen .
But really if say the Joe burned down what then all of the games would be played in Pitt ??
NBC is not the problem as much as Vs is . I mean come on how can you be legit when most of the cable systems don't have it ?
And what about the fans who have a team and can watch them all season on lets just use Fox sports boom you can pick up some of the games but then Versus get's the rights to the rest . So if no NBC you are out of luck sorry Gary Bettman but that is Mickey Mouse if you ask me .
The Yotes i'm split on one hand the team is a mess and don't make a penny so really (sorry Yotes fans) it would make perfect sense to move them.
But on the other hand i think the league is worried about one owner being able to just pull up stakes and move around anytime they want .
Just think about what could happen or could have happend the Oilers could have moved years ago the Pens could have left plus add in the citys that built a arena aka Glendale are they just poop out of luck ?
Yes i know the League did that with teams but that went to the other owners for a vote i belive.

#11 is right when he says: "Your beloved teams that relocated like Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg... all moved for a reason. They couldn't draw enough to make it work. What has changed so drastically that now you could support a franchise?" However, he needs to realize that it's obviously not working in Phoenix either.
To everyone saying "bring back Quebec/Winnipeg/Hartford", what has changed there in the last 10-15 years? Okay, Winnipeg has a new arena, but assuming you can add another couple thousand seats (there's only 15,003 in there now, fewer than the old Winnipeg Arena), will the support be there? Yes, they sold out Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals last weekend (that's AHL for the uninitiated) and came within a few hundred of selling out Game 2, but can they do that consistently at NHL prices? They'll need 14 or 15K a night just to stick around at the bottom of the attendance sheet. Winnipeg supports the AHL quite well, but I doubt whether they can do the same for the NHL. More importantly, what about corporate support? That's where the real money is. What kind of base is there?
Hartford: They've still got the same crappy arena they did when the Whale left. There's been talk of finally getting something shiny and new, but I doubt it'll go anywhere if there's not a chance they'll get the NHL back. Well, not unless UConn demands a new house. Oh, by the way, Hartford's come damn close to losing interest in hockey. They're only drawing just over 4000 a night for the AHL, and aside from the Whaler Whiners and certain people in city government, there's not much interest in attracting another NHL franchise.
Quebec: Huh? Pretty sure they've got the same ancient arena they had when the Nords were there, and the market's just too small to support the NHL.
Oh, and Saskatoon? Seriously? That place is even smaller than Winnipeg!
None of this is to say that I'm emotionally opposed to bringing the NHL back to any of these markets, but c'mon, people, let's be realistic here. Southern Ontario is the only place in Canada that has a realistic chance of being able to properly support a new NHL franchise. Maybe Winnipeg too, but I have my doubts.

Does Toronto really need another team?

still dont get why milwaukee is hockeyless...

Move the Canes back to Hartford, the Coyotes back to Winnipeg. Thrashers become the new Quebec Nordiques, Stars to Saskatoon, Lightning to Thunder Bay (yes!), Ducks to Milwaukee, Kings to Kansas City, Preds to Seattle or Portland. Forget southern Ontario. The way the economy is going, what a city requires to support a franchise is going to change and scale back...it'll have to, sooner or later. smaller markets will be way more viable five or ten years from now than they are now.

@22: Milwaukee Admirals, AHL. They draw just under 6,000 at the Bradley Center, good for 11th in the league last season. Could Milwaukee support the NHL? Don't know. I'd be more comfortable in saying yes if the NBA wasn't there.